Director: George Marshall
Cast: Will Rogers, Richard Cromwell, George Barbier, Rochelle Hudson
Have I Seen It Before: Never.
Did I Like It: First thing’s first. I love the title, or at least the hope that it represents. Second, I’m not entirely sure what it has to do with the movie that follows, but I think more films should have awesome titles. I think from now on other movies should have titles that have nothing to do with the content. Just imagine the hit The Shawshank Redemption (1994) would have been if it had been called Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)?
What we’re left with beyond that is a fairly basic, small-town romantic comedy. Had Will Rogers not had the star-power that he did, Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan could have just as easily been the romantic leads played by Cromwell and Hudson. That’s fine. I spent 85 minutes in a darkened room watching it with other people who wanted to be there, and I was sipping on an Iced Tea the whole time. I don’t have to think very hard to come up with about twenty things I would less rather to do. It might be cynical, but this is the basic magic of the movies.
It’s difficult not to note that of all the silent movie stars, Rogers was probably most suited to the transition. The rest of the comedians of the era* were physical specimens, where Rogers had an intuitive way to find le mot juste and occasionally did rope tricks. He’s good with a wry comment, and fits into the world of a talking picture quite well.
*I’m reminded with some mild amusement a younger me deputizing Chaplin into an argument in an undergrad film course when a professor kept coming back to the paragon of political and social enlightenment that was Rogers (this is the kind of education one can expect in Oklahoma). Needless to say, the professor wasn’t thrilled with that tack.